Saturday
19th February 2005Ann's Birthday
Ann is 21 again today. I left Ann in bed to have a bit of
a lie-in when Thomas started crying at 7am, but I had to get up early in any
case so that I could do some work from home.
Microsoft had recently released a lot of security patches, and so we have been
applying them at work. The problem is that the server needs to be restarted,
and so we have had to schedule this during quiet times - like 8am on a Saturday
morning for the web server. I did my restart, and after 10 minutes the server
was not back up. Then after 45 minutes, I told Ann that I would have to drive
into the city to fix the server. Obviously Ann was not pleased to hear this,
so I called my boss to let him know what was going on. Luckily, he volunteered
to go in and have a look - it could have been something silly like someone leaving
a floppy disk in the server that was stopping it from starting up. I was getting
phone calls from the Manager in charge of the server, and my boss, and from
his boss - everyone wanting to know what had happened and when it was going
to be fixed.
Anyway, to cut a long and boring story short, the server was fixed, and I was then able to make Ann her breakfast in bed. Ann got up instead - but the thought was there.
I packed up a little bit of a picnic, then went up to the
Village to get some more deli items for our picnic dinner in the Barossa. Thomas
was grouchy, and he had a little sleep whilst Ann packed our bag.
We dropped Thomas and 5 bags of supplies (toys, clothes, pushchair, trike, walker,
carseat) with his grandparents and then headed off to the Barossa valley for
the concert.
Ann had managed to arrange the hotel - the Accor Novotel Barossa Resort, which was previously fully booked. When we got there, they told us that there was transport provided to the Barossa Under the Stars concert, and that it would return to the hotel at 11pm after the concert. They told us that it was $13 - but luckily Ann clarified - "is that return?" to wich the reply was that it was $13 per person per trip (a total of $52 for the both of us). We very quickly decided that we would drive instead.
When we got to the concert with our picnic, we then found
our seats. We had a prime spot, which I think was better than some of the more
expensive 'front row' seats. The Barossa Under the Stars 2005 concert featured
a band called 'Flirt' which was on a smaller stage doing general covers of 70's
and 80's songs, and then there was 'The Fab Four' who did some good Beatles
songs. The main act consisted of "Bjorn
Again" who do Abba songs, and then of course the main act was the Beach
Boys.
See 
the
pictures.
We enjoyed Bjorn Again and their ability to get the crowd involved. Unfortunately there were signs everywhere that said 'no standing in the aisles' and 'stay seated during performance', and so when 'Bjorn Again' asked us to get up and join in with their dances, very few people did dance. But as people's confidence grew, more people got up at each request.
By the time the Beach Boys came on, people were up and dancing all over the place, which really added to the atmosphere. The Beach Boys stated that if they knew that they would be playing the songs 40 years after they were written, then would have not made the songs in the tempo that they were written in. The lead singer also introduced "only fools fall in love" by saying that it was a B side to a 45 single, and then he had to explain what a 45 was and what a B side was.
The audience was a real mix of ages, but in the Silver and Gold seats, there were mostly couples in their 40's and 50's.
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With a bit of a headache, we woke this morning after a bit of a sleep-in. Last night we left the concert during the last two songs, to beat the traffic. When then drove back and went directly to the bar in the hotel for a nightcap. Then the Beach Boys turned up after their concert, and one of them joined us at the bar, but they all went to their rooms and we then went to bed too.
As we had not paid for breakfast, we left the resort
and had breakfast in the German Bakery in Lyndoch. After stuffing ourselves,
we went directly to pick up Thomas. He had had a good time, but had rewarded
Shirley for her time by giving her a radioactive nappy. Liam told us that Thomas
was always asking to go outside, and when we were there, we saw how much Thomas
loved being outside - we are definitely going to have to ensure that we buy
a house with a garden and some secure outside space. Thomas was showing off
more 
walking today, but also
demonstrating his stong will and how he will only walk when he feels like it.
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Thomas was better at daycare today, but again he complained when he was moved from outside. Now that he has been mixing with other babies, he has conjunctivitis and a cold - which is to be expected, and in some ways good for Thomas' immune system. Of course, it's not very good for Ann and Thomas having to sufer, but it's good in the long run.
Ann got some great news today - she is going to an interview on Wednesday for a part-time position with a small legal firm in Adelaide. It is for 2 or 3 days a week, and they offered the interview immediately after Ann called to apply for the role. Ann spoke to one of the partners, who asked about her background and typing speed, so hopefully she is right for the role.
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Thomas was very good today with his eye drops for his conjunctivitus. When the doctor prescribed the drops, he warned that they would sting and hurt, and the first few times that we [tried] to put the drops in, Thomas would let the first drop go in, then scream and fight. It was so upsetting for us to have to do something to him that he did not like, but it was for his own good. This morning, Thomas had obviously learnt what was happening - I managed to prise open his eyes long enough to get the two drops in to each eye, and Ann held his arms, legs and head down. Thomas still fought back, but he was giggling instead or screaming.
This evening was my second visit to the Astronomy class
at the Adelaide
Planetarium, which was just as good and informative as last week. Slightly
fewer people turned up this time (there were spare seats instead of having to
get more chairs in), and there was more of an atmosphere of getting to know
each other.
The focus of the first hour was watching slides about the Solar
System, most of which I had already picked up from the Discovery Channel,
but it was still good to see it all from a different slant and be able to ask
questions.
The second hour was in the Planetarium, where we were introduced to the brightest
stars in the sky, and how to find them - and some of the constellations and
their asterisms,
and some of the myths behind the names.
Somehow, I managed to volunteer to take my telescope in to the class next week
for the third part of the course where we go up on to the roof and look for
the stars that we have just been told about in the Planetarium. When we were
looking at Saturn, Michael commented that it would be better to look at it through
a telescope, and I said that I would bring mine in.
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I went in to work for 45 minutes, and then came back to look after Thomas whilst Ann went to her interview. Thanks for all of you who have sent messages of encouragement to Ann for the interview.
Ann was dressed up smart, but she did not wear her new suit
as today the forecast was for almost 40°C today. Ann got there in plenty
of time and parked directly outside, ready for a good interview. The interview
went well, with Ann coming away feeling that she had done well.
There is probably only one or two other people who have been interviewed, because
they said that they will let Ann know tomorrow morning.
In the mail today I got a series of forms indicating that
I am considered a creditor in the liquidation of a former employer. Possum
IT has started liquidation proceedings - in some ways it's good that I decided
not to continue to work for them, but in other ways it is sad that people that
I knew and worked with are now all out of work. For my two cents, I think that
the company was not making enough money because it was charging too much - largely
caused by the company who made the software charging too much for the licenses.
If they had charged less, then they would have had more customers and so the
overheads per customer could have dropped through economies of scale.
I hope that all the people from Possum end up getting jobs soon, but I will
probably not run into them as it is a very different type of industry and work.
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Finally, the company that hosts this website have processed
the statistics for this website. I can now see that the website is getting more
and more hits, and more unique visitors. I can also see that the site is getting
more people coming in through searches on Google and MSN and Yahoo - searching
for everything from the logoquiz
and brewing
information to looking for 'Thomas
Wickham'.
Ann was unfortunately not successful in getting the job, but
the guy did say that it was a very difficult decision and he implied that the
choice was between Ann and only one other person. Unfortunately, Ann had done
all the arrangements to have Thomas looked after in daycare for more days so
that she could do the job, and did not get the bad news until everything was
arranged. We just hope that the legal firm did not make their decision based
upon the assumption that Ann would not be able to make the childcare arrangements.
I went to the dentist today to have a teeth mold taken so that they can fit me with a night-guard for my tooth grinding. When it went in to my mouth, it felt like my cheeks were being stretched out, and then once it was being removed it felt like my teeth were being ripped out. The good thing about my dentist is that she keeps me informed of what is happening and what possibility there is that I will feel pain.
My mother called me from England to tell me about the freezing weather, and how her car is covered in salt that has been sprayed up from the roads where it has been spread to stop ice forming. She also told me that my grandmother has had a small stroke, which has been on the cards for a while. I got my first ever letter from her my grandmother last week out of the blue, which was a little strange, but good all the same.
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